World champion boxer Josh Taylor doesn't have 'relationship with Daniel Kinahan anymore'

The outspoken fighter who signed with the management company, co-founded by the Irish cartel leader in 2020, had previously described Kinahan as a “great advisor and doing great things for the sport."

However, in April this year, the US State Department issued a $5m reward for information leading to the arrest of Kinahan, leading to an announcement by MTK that it was to cease trading days later.

"I haven't got a relationship with Daniel anymore," Taylor told BBC Sport. “MTK is no more, so everything is sort of out the window.

"I now manage myself, moving on with a lawyer doing all my contract and management work. Moving forward with Top Rank (his promotor), so yeah, that's it.

"I'm not really clued up with any of the stuff that was going on. Obviously the stuff that has come to light has been pretty serious, but no, I'm focusing on boxing and it's nothing to do with me."

Tyson Fury, another fighter with links to Kinahan also distanced himself from Kinahan by declaring "It's none of my business," when the heavyweight champion was recently questioned about his links to the mob boss.

He was subsequently refused entry to the US for the first time on Friday after he booked a flight from the UK. In a huge blow to his fighting career , he was informed he would not be granted entry Stateside.

In later emerged that Fury and other former MTK boxers and their teams had been booking flights to the US to 'test the waters' to see if they can fly.

But the boxers are understood to be so flabbergasted by the sanctions against the Kinahan mafia that they cannot believe they have been caught up in a travel ban.

More than 600 people, including the world heavyweight champion, are on the banned list because of their direct association with drug boss Daniel Kinahan.

The implications of the entry refusal for the boxers is likely to cost them hundreds of millions of dollars and is a clear message of the commitment of US law enforcement to the takedown of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.

Christy Kinahan Snr and his sons have a $5million bounty on their heads since the stunning announcements of sanctions against them, their associates and businesses linked to them.

Further sanctions are expected to be announced in the near future, intensifying pressure on the organisation which has been in chaos since.

Tyson Fury has been desperate to distance himself from Daniel Kinahan since the announcements were made and he stormed out of an interview when asked about his friendship and business relationship with the mob boss before his fight against Dillian Whyte.

In the aftermath of the bout he announced his retirement from boxing, but his wife Paris has suggested that he hasn't hung up his gloves for good.

The news this weekend that Fury is on the banned list will be devastating to any future career plans to fight in the money-spinning US market.

Previously, lesser-known associates of Kinahan have been refused entry to the US, including his one-time best friend and the founder of the boxing giant MTK, which grew out of the MGM gym in Marbella, Matthew Macklin.

Macklin, who has no involvement in crime, continues to work for Sky Sports as a commentator despite his past links to Kinahan and his role as a co-founder of the boxing company that folded within a week of the US sanctions being announced.